http://www.furnituresite.com/
Furnituresite.com was launched in 1998 by Steve Rothschild. A year after the site was launched; the company replaced Rothschild with Andrew Brooks as CEO and soon after changed its name to Furniture.com. The company had lost $46.5 million in the year it filled the IPO. Although Furniture.com had many customers, it still struggled to make a decent profit. It became apparent that the company was in trouble when it lay off 30 of its 230 employees in April 2000.
There were some reasons that caused furniture.com to failure in the market. Firstly, furniture needs high shipping cost because furniture is usually large and heavy. Since Furniture.com was an online store, shipping was very important because it was part of every sale. Most of the items Furniture.com sold were too heavy “to send by the U.S. postal service, Federal Express, or United Postal Service,” so it were forced to use more expensive specialty delivery services. There were some stories of shipping costing more than the purchase price, which is very bad for business. Furniture.com was not able to find a remedy to the high shipping costs and suffered greatly because of it.
Secondly, Furniture.com also struggled with its information systems. It struggled to “track, ship, and charge” properly on the goods it sold. Many shipments were shipped without charging the proper price for them, to the wrong place, or not sent at all. It was most common for shipments to be delivered late; this was a big problem for customers with deadlines, such as holidays and other special occasions. In the last few months of the company’s existence, the Better Business Bureau received over 70 complaints about Furniture.com, mostly over shipping errors.
Finally, the product, furniture, was not the ideal type of product for the Internet. Many consumers just weren’t ready to buy furniture over the Web. Furniture is a fairly expensive purchase, and most customers want to make sure they make the right decision. Consumers, put a big emphasis on the comfort of furniture. A major downside to shopping on Furniture.com was that the consumer lacked the ability to touch and feel cushions and fabrics first hand. People were not comfortable choosing furniture solely based on pictures, and those who did were forced to gamble on what the actual product would be like.
Furnituresite.com was launched in 1998 by Steve Rothschild. A year after the site was launched; the company replaced Rothschild with Andrew Brooks as CEO and soon after changed its name to Furniture.com. The company had lost $46.5 million in the year it filled the IPO. Although Furniture.com had many customers, it still struggled to make a decent profit. It became apparent that the company was in trouble when it lay off 30 of its 230 employees in April 2000.
There were some reasons that caused furniture.com to failure in the market. Firstly, furniture needs high shipping cost because furniture is usually large and heavy. Since Furniture.com was an online store, shipping was very important because it was part of every sale. Most of the items Furniture.com sold were too heavy “to send by the U.S. postal service, Federal Express, or United Postal Service,” so it were forced to use more expensive specialty delivery services. There were some stories of shipping costing more than the purchase price, which is very bad for business. Furniture.com was not able to find a remedy to the high shipping costs and suffered greatly because of it.
Secondly, Furniture.com also struggled with its information systems. It struggled to “track, ship, and charge” properly on the goods it sold. Many shipments were shipped without charging the proper price for them, to the wrong place, or not sent at all. It was most common for shipments to be delivered late; this was a big problem for customers with deadlines, such as holidays and other special occasions. In the last few months of the company’s existence, the Better Business Bureau received over 70 complaints about Furniture.com, mostly over shipping errors.
Finally, the product, furniture, was not the ideal type of product for the Internet. Many consumers just weren’t ready to buy furniture over the Web. Furniture is a fairly expensive purchase, and most customers want to make sure they make the right decision. Consumers, put a big emphasis on the comfort of furniture. A major downside to shopping on Furniture.com was that the consumer lacked the ability to touch and feel cushions and fabrics first hand. People were not comfortable choosing furniture solely based on pictures, and those who did were forced to gamble on what the actual product would be like.
1 comment:
This is a good example for an e-commerce failure. I think nobody will go to that website to buy furniture. We prefer touch and try the furniture before we buy. For example sofa, we will sit on it and try how comfortable it is before we make the purchase
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